'If employers seek years of experience from young people, then how do we get said experience?'

As part of the Irish Examiner's special report on youth unemployment, Caitlín Griffin speaks to young people who lost work during the pandemic 

Work was a sociable place where we could chat to the regulars, but once the barstools were taken away from the bar, that was it, Karl Rowsome says.

While some people waited to return to work as the economy gradually reopened, this was not the case for many young people who permanently lost their jobs.

Kat Kaminska, 23, was a full-time worker in the retail sector before the pandemic hit and she, among other colleagues, was let go.